After episode with Gordon Brown last year, Rochdale pensioner turns focus on Clegg – but we gave her the idea, admits Labour
Gillian Duffy has shot back into the political limelight with a little help from friends in the party she helped to bury at last year's general election.
On the eve of the anniversary of her encounter with Gordon Brown, who infamously described Duffy as a "bigoted woman", the Rochdale pensioner challenged Nick Clegg to explain why he "went in" with the Tories.
In a script that could have been written by the Labour party, Duffy asked Clegg to look her in the eye and tell her whether he was happy with the government's spending cuts.
"Can you honestly tell me now, look me in the eye, and say that you're quite happy with all these policies that have gone wrong for your party?" she asked the deputy prime minister when he arrived at Holroyd Precision Ltd at 9am in Rochdale.
Clegg's team were given an inkling that the tables were about to be turned when Duffy, who was criticised by Brown after challenging him on immigration from eastern Europe during a televised encounter, demanded to see the deputy prime minister outside the company on Tuesday morning. Clegg was in town to announce that £450m has been allocated from the regional growth fund to help companies claw their way out of the recession.
In a scene that the satirists behind The Thick of It would struggle to match, Duffy was ushered into the company's reception area just as Clegg's minders spotted three Labour activists waiting in the wings. The pensioner is close to Simon Danczuk, the town's Labour MP, who captured the seat from the Lib Dems last year.
Clegg headed straight to Duffy as soon as he arrived, accompanied by Lord Heseltine, who is overseeing the regional growth fund. "Hello Gillian, how are you, all right?" a cheerful Clegg asked his rival for the title of celebrity of last year's election.
Duffy replied: "Could I ask you one question, because you are in such a rush and I don't want to take the limelight off these people? Could you please tell me why you went with the Conservatives last year instead of going with the Labour?"
Clegg remained unflustered as he embarked on a little lecture about how no party won the election – while of course acknowledging her role. "Gordon Brown and I talked about it, and I know you talked to Gordon Brown on other things, there was no way the Labour party and the Liberal Democrats would have enough MPs to run a government," he said. "I thought it was very important, and I still think it is very important, that you have got a government that actually can do things, because we have got to sort out the mess we inherited from the previous lot."
This prompted Duffy's request for Clegg to look her in the eye and say whether he is happy with the coalition. Clegg replied: "I'll tell you what, whoever was in power now, whether it was Labour – any government now would have to take difficult decisions. If anyone is telling you from the Labour party that somehow there's a magic wand solution, that we can do this without any controversy, they are frankly fibbing to you."
This failed to impress Duffy. "I've just been listening to you on the television, and I've listened to you on the radio, and that's just the same speech you gave out," she said.
Duffy also said that Clegg had failed to persuade her about the merits of the coalition. "It's gone wrong," she said. "Let's face it, it's all gone wrong."
Suspicion among Clegg's aides about Labour's involvement in Tuesday's face-off was confirmed when Danczuk admitted he had suggested to Duffy that she should challenge the deputy prime minister.
Danczuk, who befriended Duffy after her confrontation with Brown last year, made the suggestion to her in a telephone call on Monday night.
"I said did you know that Nick Clegg is visiting Rochdale? I said it is the talk of the town. She said she did not know that. I said in a jokey way that she could go down there and have a word with him. She said she did not think much of his broken promises. I said go down and have your say."
Duffy said that she could not go because she had no way of getting to the company. So the MP arranged for a Labour party member to give her a lift.
Danczuk went out of his way to befriend Duffy after last year's general election and played a hand in persuading her to endorse David Miliband in the Labour leadership contest. "Gillian baked me a cheese and onion pie the other night. It was very nice. We are good friends," he said.